COMFORT FOOD, DELI AND MEXICAN CUISINE ON THE GRIDDLE

Spring, at long last, has sprung, and in the spirit of new beginnings, a growing number of local eateries will be sprouting in the coming months.

Comfort food with a global twist, New York-style deli and upscale Mexican cuisine are some of the concepts enterprising restaurateurs are hatching for their latest projects.

Here’s a rundown on new restaurants on the horizon and an update on a hastily closed eatery that reopened last Friday.

Lucky’s Lunch Counter

Just in time for baseball season, this throwback to the old-school Jewish delis of Chicago and New York will open just steps from Petco Park. Part of an ambitious project that will include a 12,000-square-foot entertainment space known as Block No. 16 Union and Spirits, the lunch counter will offer all the deli-style fare you’d expect: piled-high pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup and ballpark-style hot dogs.

Everything at the 2,500-square-foot restaurant will be served in to-go paper boxes, perfect for a ballpark outing.

And in keeping with the retro menu, the lunch counter, like the rest of the project, is housed in a nearly century-old East Village warehouse known as the Culy Warehouse.

“I grew up in the Midwest and lived in downtown Chicago, so I tried to take the heart of what was good in some of the old-school Jewish delis,” said Ty Hauter, owner of Good Time Design, developer of the project and a number of other downtown venues, including Bub’s at the Ballpark, The Tipsy Crow, Bootlegger and Double Deuce.

“This is going to be like an early 1900s big-city lunch counter you’d see in Chicago or New York or any urban neighborhood.”

Cost to develop: $2.5 million (including entertainment venue with lounge)

Brooklyn Girl Eatery Bar and Pantry

In something of an homage to his Brooklyn-born-and-raised wife, Michael McGeath (in partnership with wife Victoria) is opening a Mission Hills eatery devoted to “global” comfort food.

The move comes more than a year after the couple closed their popular Italian dining spot, Trattoria Acqua, a fixture in La Jolla for 17 years. While their upscale restaurant, notable for its stunning ocean views, catered heavily to tourists, Brooklyn Girl will be, first and foremost, a neighborhood eatery, said McGeath. It will even offer free room service for residents of the condo building in which it is located.

“We wanted a smaller neighborhood restaurant, kind of like Cheers where every night is like having a hundred of your closest friends over for dinner,” said McGeath.

In order to replicate that Brooklyn vibe, McGeath even went on a Brooklyn scouting trip where he looked at 30 different restaurants. Besides offering dine-in service throughout the day, the 4,800-square-foot restaurant will have its own barista station and offer gourmet takeout, including house-made cheeses and bacon, roasted chickens and gravlax salmon.